Painful to Read

[Oniya]

I'll grant you the no Dew (and no nachos, either!) but my gaming group was actually rather balanced.  (A married couple, her mother, 4-5 single men, 4-5 single women when we started.  Mr. Oniya and I met through that game.)

[Remiel]

Where were you guys when I was going through my tabletop phase, Oniya?  >:(

[Valerian]

I was once in an all-female session of Vampire: The Masquerade that a friend of mine put together.  So here we are, six women sitting in the back room of a game store, playing contentedly... except for the frequent interruptions of teenage and twenty-something guys creeping up to the doorway to stare at us.  (There was no door to close, sadly.)  After a while, the GM screamed at one of the larger groups that came visiting and they all left us alone -- she could be terrifying when she needed to be -- but it gave me a good idea of what the average zoo animal experiences.

Other than that, while I've fairly often been one of two females in a group, and once or twice one of three, it's far more usual for me to be the only one.  That may be partly a regional thing, though; I've frequently heard of higher proportions of female gamers in other parts of the world.

However, we're apparently all equally doomed to hell, anyway, regardless of gender, so....

[Lilias]

My Mage cabal could be pretty balanced as well: 4-5 men, 2-3 women, it all depended on how many of us could make it to the session. I met my ex there, at the very first session, in fact; and so did our storyteller.

[Oniya]

Where were you guys when I was going through my tabletop phase, Oniya?  >:(

If that was 15 years ago, it was a basement in Annandale, VA.

[OldSchoolGamer]

My gaming peak was early 1980s.  This was before most of the other RPGs had come out, and D&D was still king.  Back when being a nerd or geek still had a subversive aura around it.  There was no Internet (at least in anything even faintly resembling its current form).  BBSes were still a recent innovation, and modem speeds (baud rate, as it was called) was around 2400 bytes (no metric prefix in front of it).  If you had a modem.  If you even HAD a computer.  Video game graphics ranged from monochrome to (if you were really lucky) 64 colors at TV resolution. 

I think gaming was better back then because it was new.  Virgin territory.  We hadn't been spoon-fed images yet, so we had to imagine a lot.  There weren't oodles of rule supplements.  Every DM I knew had custom rules, their own critical hit tables and other tables.

I will say there was a little linkage between D&D and the occult amongst a smallish minority of gamers.  But it was a chicken-egg thing: you couldn't really tell if D&D introduced the player TO the occult or if the player was in the occult and used D&D to explore themes like magic and mythology.  Certainly the notion that Dungeons and Dragons was going to turn the youth of America into Satanists was grade-A bullshit.  But that didn't stop churches from engaging in (usually counterproductive) efforts to stamp out D&D playing.  I knew more than one player who left a church over its rabid opposition to D&D.  Others pretended to quit in order to pacify parents and/or pastors, but kept right on playing on the side, in secret.  To the extent that Dungeons and Dragons "interfered in a believer's relationship with God" (a common phrase back then), it was the actions of other believers that were primarily responsible.

As for the notion that D&D caused people to "go insane," my observation was largely the opposite: D&D gaming groups, by their inclusive tendencies, served as a refuge for kids who were maladjusted and otherwise friendless.  The few who "got too much into the game" generally had underlying mental health issues to begin with.  I know of a case where a suicide was in fact averted by a player's gaming partners.

[Oniya]

My mother once spoke to our parish priest about my D&D gaming.  He told her she was 'right to be concerned', and offered to have a chat with me.  I told her I would, on the condition that she spend an equal amount of time talking to one of my friends.

Never did have to talk to that priest...

[Braioch]

My mother once spoke to our parish priest about my D&D gaming.  He told her she was 'right to be concerned', and offered to have a chat with me.  I told her I would, on the condition that she spend an equal amount of time talking to one of my friends.

Never did have to talk to that priest...

What's funny is I had the same experience with my grandfather.....over being gay.....

"So Papa, I'll sleep with a woman to know whether or not I'm gay, if you go bang a guy to make sure you're straight, ne?

Ahh, I see, nevermind then."

That always seems to work for just about any problem ^_^

[Ironwolf85]

gaming is the first place where I found real friends, we mostly play D&D, and it is a lot of fun.
I kind of enjoyed playing the paladins and clerics, and occasionally exploring religious stuff, I think it's made me more affirmed in my own faith in god.
I have resolved not to include jesus directly in gaming because it places him in the same catagory as the made up deities in game. Still you can include the morality.
"you see a travler collapsed in the center of the road, nobody will help him, you see a merchant balk at getting near him and just walk around. what do you do?" of course they help him, he turns out to be someone helpful, and the people.
I'm no saint, but I remain a good man, and nothing will change that
it's just a game, a fun game, but a game, and you can teach some good lessons about yourself and the world through role playing

"such stories are not important because they tell us about Dragons, they are important because they tell us Dragons can be defeated" (some old guy I can't remember)

[HairyHeretic]

I think it might have been Sir PTerry (Terry Pratchett) and referencing monsters instead of dragons.

[Ironwolf85]

that could be it... the quote is still relivent though